Kathy Griffin on Anderson Cooper Fallout: 'It Still Hurts'

Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a Storywill premiere at SXSW this month, and in anticipation of the film, the comedian is opening up about everything from her government-sponsored beef with Donald Trump, to the end of her friendship with Anderson Cooper.

"I was devastated. It still hurts," Griffin said of her breakup with Cooper in an interview with Variety. "I mean, I really loved him. I don't have a punchline for that one."

After her controversial photo holding the president's bloody, severed head, longtime friend and New Year's Eve co-host Cooper completely severed ties with Griffin. Griffin explained that she pitched a new idea for NYE after Cooper dumped her. "I'm very upset that no one picked up my genius idea last year of a New Year's Eve live with Kathy Griffin and Stormy Daniels. I pitched that to about five different places, and they all laughed during the pitch, and then they would kick it upstairs. Stormy works the pole. Maybe I do. We have a couple of visitors. I had the whole thing worked out. I have ideas, if nothing else."

Griffin maintains that the disproportionate amount of ire her photo received was largely "because I'm a 58-year-old woman. I'm a successful stand-up comedian, which flies in the face of everything Trump and his folks believe. And I think my impression is they're just offended by the audacity that I want to continue to work and be successful and I'm a self-made woman."

But Griffin is still hopeful that things will turn around, and has already spoken at the Upfront Summit alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and been invited to speak at Oxford.

"I'm very acutely aware I'm tied to that photo for the rest of my life. People confront me in the street. They think I'm ISIS. And then it becomes funny. At the moment it's scary, and then I go home and go, 'OK, really?' I've just learned to accept that. I wish I could go the [Colin] Kaepernick route, where this ends in me getting a $100 billion Nike contract. So I'm sure that's coming. Maybe with Crocs."

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